Sometimes We're Right About Something

The following is from my friend and member of The Writer’s Chatroom, Ed Easley, who is also a writer. Ed spent many years in the newspaper business before dropping out to write and edit fiction. Being somewhat of a dinosaur about marketing—he still thought he had to send press releases and books for review through snail mail …

Well, we at The Writer’s Chatroom had heard enough of his whining about lack of responses to all of his hard work, not to mention the expense. We’d talked to him repeatedly about a Web presence. He didn’t believe it was worth the effort at first. So, during an International chat one Friday I typed in, “Be right back”.

I bounced back into the chat from time to time for the next 10 to 15 minutes and then went back in to tell Ed he had been ambushed and now had his own blog. http://edeasley.blogspot.com I told him to give it about three weeks before he’d see any real responses. Who knew he had a lovely Webpage on his publisher’s site? I did—which is where I zapped that cute picture of him and his beard. Very few others did, it seems.

Anyhow, Ed started adding his publisher’s web addy and his new blog addy to every email he sent out—and every snail mail letter. Three weeks later, again at a chat, Ed reported that Audrey, Renee, and I had been right all along and he should have listened to us. We love hearing that we’re right about something once in awhile!

Web presence is something we preach religiously to all writers. I received the following from Ed today.

Please bear in mind that he writes humor (and has a girlfriend—just thought I’d throw that in):

August 16, 2006

Some time has passed. I’d poked my head into the site regularly, hoping comments to magically appear. They hadn’t. I figured I’d been right all along -- Web publishing was a worthless form of marketing.

I mean think about it; the Web is a really big place. Here I was, sitting in Washington state, expecting to have folks from all over the world magically find me over search engines. Right.

I’ve been to Reno. I’ve played the lottery. I live in Spokane, Wash., and still can’t drop a perfectly good house on my second ex-wife. Not even a used RV. The odds just plain suck. (Sorry to all you folks in Mississippi. Yep, all those trailers sitting on the Delta were mine. Target practice.)

So I whined to Linda. She showed me how to update the page. It turns out that lots of people wrote. They opened up the nuthouse gates, and well, I guess I run the lemonade stand.

You can read some of them at http://edeasley.blogspot.com/ . The best stuff has been the material about the two ex-cons who have been writing me. You meet all kinds of people in cyberspace. These guys just look at the pictures in my book. Pretty as I am, I had trouble getting a date for the prom.

They’d have taken me, if they’d been able to get work release. I’ll let you know when the wedding is, and where we are registered. I suspect it will be on a Sunday, that’s usually when they have visiting day up at Walla Walla’s state prison. (Yes, one of them is from Walla Walla -- just down the road from Spokane. He's the one due for parole in six months.)

I suspect there will be more interesting people who stop by my site. Linda gets all the nice folks. Folks you'd take home to Mom. All the weirdos write me. Go figure.

Y’all are welcome at my place. In fact, there’s a button you can push and write my publisher. How do you think he found me? You can find him to complain at http://www.cloonfadpress.com . I’ll keep you posted. I have a wedding to plan. --Ed